


Maybe

by LimoFatig



Series: Yes/No [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Draco Malfoy Needs a Hug, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Moving On, Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:00:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25659361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LimoFatig/pseuds/LimoFatig
Summary: Draco promised Harry he would live a little, so he shows up for the first time to an eight year party.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Series: Yes/No [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1679071
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	Maybe

"And then, me broom flew straight into the Great Lake, it was bonkers!"

Draco was sitting in the middle of the eight-year common room. Not far from him, Finnigan was telling an apparently very funny story to... heck he couldn't recall half of their names. Hufflepuff boy number three, big nose Ravenclaw girl... and what were the twins’ names again? He remembered thinking every single one of them was _insignificant_. 

And now, they were all laughing and drinking and eating, together. They were all happy, together. While _he,_ was miserable, and alone. So alone that not only was he not invited to their weekly parties, he wasn’t even aware of their existence until his little encounter with Potter in the Astronomy tower the week prior. “We don’t invite people; we just drink with everybody that happens to be in the room on Friday nights. You don’t have to be invited Draco; you just have to show up.” Harry had said.

So now, there he was, sitting awkwardly on a couch, belonging there as much as a clown at a funeral, drinking fire whiskey with about 20 people he had always considered mortal enemies, or simply primitive pillocks, waiting for his doom. Although, it didn't seem like he had to worry after all. Nobody was paying any attention to him. At all.

It made him think back. It was now November. He had been back in Hogwarts for more than 2 months now and not a single one of the teenagers in this room had tried to have a go at him. Not an insult, not a jinx, nothing. And now that he was really looking at all of them for the first time, he could easily understand why.

They were not ignoring him in particular; they were ignoring the past in general. It was so obvious now. Everybody here had decided that they all well deserved to be stupid reckless kids. To finally live the adolescence they had been so violently deprived of. Because of the Dark Lord and his followers. "Because of me." he couldn't help but whisper to himself.

So Draco went to get off the couch, he just couldn't stay amongst them all. But the second he started moving, Hermione Granger went and sat on the same couch he was.

"You came", she said with looked like a genuine smile. She had the same look in her eyes that Potter had on that night on the tower. Merry and drunk.

"Yes, but I should not have, I actually was about to head out to bed", the Slytherin muttered. But he didn't get up. Something told him this conversation was important.

"Why did you come then?", she asked again with a look that appeared to be... just interested in his well being. This couldn't be happening.

"Potter invited me. But I don't feel like I deserve to be here. It... it isn't right", he answered quietly, his eyes still fixed on the group listening to the cursed broom story. He couldn't help but notice Potter was now among them, laughing wholeheartedly without a care in the world.

"You didn't have to say yes Draco, why did you?" Hermione insisted.

'Because it's what I do', he thought. Yes My Lord, I'll do as you asked. Yes father, I will honor the Malfoy family.

Deep in thought, he didn't notice Weasley had sat on the couch opposite him. When he came to, the first thing he noticed was the redhead biting into what could terminologically be called a sandwich, but looked more like 3 meat pies, one over the other.

His first response would have been to say something mean and obnoxious (old habits die hard), so he just glared at Ron with sheer horror. When the Gryffindor boy grumbled a very loud "What??", Draco took a quick glance at Granger and was relieved to see the same disgust in her eyes. But since she is a nice person, she just calmly said: "You know Ronald, I’m pretty sure that meal was made to be shared with, you know, everyone here." Ron shrugged and took an even bigger bite. Granger was shaking her head, but her eyes held nothing but tenderness for her boyfriend.

"So why are you here? You never come to those parties." Weasley asked with a cleared voice, not having food in his mouth anymore. Had he eaten that whole sandwich/meat pie during the hardly 10 seconds he spent looking at Hermione? And what the hell had that thing been anyway? Just when he went to ask, Granger used this time to answer Weasley's question in his place: "Because Harry asked.”

What should happen now is Draco shouting a clear : "what the bloody hell are you talking about, do you have rats in the attic or something?", but no words came out. The blond boy was somehow more mesmerized by how she had said it than the fact she had said it. She giggled it. Like 12 years old girls do, and not adding: "if you hurt out precious saviour, we will curse your death eater ass into next week." It was pure, undeniable gossip. Nothing more. This was unequivocally the weirdest day of the young Malfoy's life.

"Makes sense", Weasley nodded. Draco looked at him with a scared and questionable look. So Ron continued: "Well you've both been obsessed with each other since forever, and now have no reason whatsoever to hate each other, so those feelings had to change into something else, and it turned into flirting or whatever you two have now. I'm just saying it's logical. "

Draco must have looked like he was about to implode, cause suddenly Granger was sitting closer to him and stroking his back. Not unlike what Potter had done on the tower. "You must feel very confused about those feelings", she started. Draco could only nod, so she continued: "all that history between the 2 of you, all that violence and hatred. I could understand that even though you had feelings for him, you'd be reluctant to start a relationship with him. Do you know how you feel about him, exactly?"

Draco hadn't spoken a single word since this madness started. Why could he say? He gazed at Potter, still sitting with the big group. The broom story still wasn't over. It was the Weasley twins who had cursed it. He should have guessed. They were now on the fact that Potter actually saw a broom nearly taking Dumbledore's head off in third year. Apparently, the old wizard had found that encounter hilarious. "Yes, it _was_ on October 23rd! How come we never got punished?"

His eyes still fixed on them, Draco whispered: "I don't know Granger, like you said, it's complicated." Hermione nodded and you could see in her eyes she was pondering what best to say to comfort and guide the Slytherin. But yet again, Ron was quicker. "Do you think about him when you wank?"

That finally got Draco's attention back to the couple. He could only blink at the Gryffindor boy. “What? I mean the point is to help him figure out how he feels, I guessed it could be great to start there. Less feelings, less complicated. And perhaps he doesn’t even like Harry. He may just think he has a nice arse or something”, Ron blurted, looking at his girlfriend like the blond wasn’t there.

"Hum… well actually, regarding that…" Draco blurted while Hermione was nudging Ron quite hard for asking such a private question. But Draco couldn’t take this awkwardness anymore, he had to ask: "I'm very sorry but… you two are not angry at me? Or even suspicious or I don't know. I don't understand how you're not convinced I'm planning on maliciously seducing him in order to eventually kill him in his sleep or something?”

The same thing that had happened twice happened again: Hermione looked at him intensely while clearly considering the better answer to give him, but couldn’t, because Ron instantly said: “Are you? Planning on killing him I mean?”

“You really think if I was, I would tell you? Let me remind you I’m an excellent secret keeper, smarter and more cunning than both of you combined. Simply telling you my intentions are pure should not be enough.” Draco argued with more spite than he initially intended.

“Well that’s good enough for me”, Ron answered with a little smile.

Hermione smiled as well at the same moment. The Slytherin couldn’t believe was he was hearing from his two Gryffindor counterparts. It really sounded like they would both be okay with him actually _dating_ Potter. That maybe… “Do either of you think he could be interested in me?” Draco mumbled suddenly.

“Awww, I gather you can be kinda cute for a snake”, the redhead Gryffindor uttered quite loudly as an answer.

Hermione nudged her boyfriend again before offering a more useful answer “If you mean physically, yes, I believe he would be interested. I see the way he looks at you on the rare occasions you are around. But you have to know he has been in a… may I say party mood since the beginning of the school year, so if you are looking for a serious relationship, I’m rather uncertain to what he would have to say to be honest.”

At that, the young Malfoy couldn’t help but glare at Potter for the umpteenth time that night, but noticed to his great surprise that Harry was looking right at him this time, with what could only be described as a come hither look.

“Like I said Draco, he likes you, but I’m sad to say, you might not be looking for the same thing.” Hermione remarked, before standing up from the couch, and taking Ron with her someplace else. Harry stood up from the group and walked to sit with Draco. None of the others seem to notice his leaving.

“Cursed broom story finally over?” Draco wondered after Harry had sat down next to him.

“Yeah. Turns out Lupin managed to stop it just before it got into Snape’s potions storeroom. He might have saved a few lives that night.” Harry replied, still looking at him flirtatiously.

Maybe Hermione had be right, maybe Potter was just looking for a shag among other shags, to explore his youth in a well-deserved break from all the drama that went down the last few years. He had thought himself about doing that, but he felt like he didn’t deserve the fun. He deserved to spend every damn minute on that tower, yelling sorry over and over again, asking himself what he could have done better.

“You seem far away suddenly Malfoy. Are you okay?” Harry inquired looking genuinely concerned. 

Draco was not okay. Ever since that night in the tower, Potter had been in every single one of his thoughts. Draco was just realising now that his obsessing on the word NO was over. All it took was a five minutes conversation with the savior and everything had changed. It was clear to the blond now; he had just replaced an obsession with another. His guilt and anger and mostly shame was still very much in place in his head. The only difference was the coping mechanism he used to go through everyday life. Harry couldn’t become his crutch. All that boy wanted was to suck a few cocks because an evil maniac prevented him to do so for years.

Draco had two choices then. Sleep with Harry that night and fucking painfully let him go the next morning, or walk away, take a couple months to properly heal, and ask him out then, risking that he’d then be in a committed relationship.

Those where both sucky _sucky_ choices.

“What do you do when you’re in a situation where you have only two options, and both just won’t do?” Draco queried suddenly after a long silence.

“Find a third option, obviously.” Harry answered like it was the easiest question he was ever asked. He moved closer to the blond on the couch and muttered seductively: “Why do you ask?”

Harry was very close now. Too close. If Draco moved at all, Harry would think he was making a move to kiss him and that just could not happen, so he stood up swiftly. “I’m tired Potter, I’m going to bed” Draco informed him coldly.

To his surprise, the black-haired boy laughed, before standing up too and said, a little too loudly to Draco’s liking: “No problem, Draco, sleep tight. Just don’t forget what I said on the tower. Stop feeling sorry for yourself, live a little. You said you wanted to kiss me that night, well here I am! Seriously Malfoy, I can’t be more obvious.”

“I never said I wanted to kiss you.” The Slytherin gainsaid, relaxing a little. Arguing with Potter felt like a less dangerous territory.

“Well no, but you know, it was…?

“Implied? Yes it was, Potter. Happy to know you are still eloquent as ever. Still, I never _said_ it.”

“Well do you wanna kiss me now Malfoy?”

The flirting mood was back, even stronger than it had been five minutes ago. Both boys were standing up near the couch, that way being even closer than they were sitting down. The blond felt trapped once again.

“Harry, I’m sorry but I can’t. I told you, both my choices are bad here” Draco explained glaring at his shoes, scared to look at Harry’s green eyes.

“Those choices were about me? Sorry but I don’t follow”, Harry grilled him, still way too loudly to Draco’s liking.

‘Find a third option’ Potter had said. Move to France? Jump off the window? Scream ‘PLEASE MARRY ME’? Nothing but crazy ideas came to mind.

He remembered fifth year, when Pansy has kissed him on a dare. He spent the next week having vivid dreams about new versions of that kiss. In most of them, Potter had been the one kissing him.

Now, all he had to do was say _yes_ , and all those dreams could so effortlessly come true.

“You do wanna kiss me”, Harry said suddenly, looking as smug as ever.

The Gryffindor’s lips were once again so, so very close to his. Draco could feel his face growing red, his mouth going dry.

“Maybe.” He managed to answer, shaking his head, displaying a giant grin.

He then finally channeled enough courage to take a couple steps back towards the dorm rooms. Still facing him, he breathed: “I can’t Harry. Us kissing is a terrible idea. I hope you understand.”

He then turned around and painfully walked the longest 10 feet of his life, leaving a very horny and baffled green-eyed boy behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> "Maybe rain or maybe snow, maybe yes or maybe no." Russian proverb


End file.
